Teaching Social Studies as full on teacher in Japan?

8 comments

1. As to your dream job, are you aware of the level of Japanese proficiency you’d need to even have a chance?

   Why would they they ever hire someone who speaks Japanese as a second language to teach a Japanese subject when there are plenty of Japanese natives vying for this job. What would you bring to the table?

   Teaching English at the University level is certainly realistic.

   Teaching a different subject at a international elementary -high school is realistic

   Both of the above likely require some certs but I don’t know which specifically

   Becoming an actual Japanese teacher ( you don’t get to pick your subject in most cases) is very complicated and difficult but possible but again requires practical fluency in the language. You must also pass a course/examination to become licensed.

   What’s more you should be aware that working in Japan can be a truly awful experience if you come at it with rose colored glasses like you likely do.

2. Teacher of a subject other than English in a noted Japanese uni in Japanese. Wrote several textbooks in Japanese, published articles in Japanese, joined several academic societies, received numerous competitive research grants, and was a co-leader in the field.

   Advice: be prepared to be admired by students while working 10X harder than others in the department in the beginning, have flawless Japanese, be flexible, humble but 100X more psychologically strong than your colleagues, and get a flac jacket for constant spite and incoming unwarranted and needless hazing from all directions. Volunteer for all the grunt work with a smile.

   But when you are approved to teach doctoral students by the ministry, it’s the day you get accepted.

3. When I studied abroad in Japan, one of my professors was a Japanese art history professor from the US. It is possible, but they will most likely want you to have some experience in your home country first.

4. Teaching it in Japanese or English?

5. If you did integrated studies in English you could do something like that. Essentially you would be teaching a subject matter as an English course, the idea being that it’s an immersion experience. International kindergartens and high school do that.

6. You’re not going to get to be a professor teaching Japanese History in Japan unless you’re Japanese lol

   Positions teaching Social Studies/History in English do exist at some international schools/prestigious high schools but they are not common and competitive. You would need teaching credentials and experience teaching overseas

7. I actually just answered a somewhat similar post here with [https://www.reddit.com/r/teachinginjapan/comments/u2zjqk/comment/i4wz5ey/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/teachinginjapan/comments/u2zjqk/comment/i4wz5ey/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)

   ​

   I agree with most of what’s written here, but I actually think there’s an odd opportunity your dream generates.

   There are positions for programs targeted at international students. Most of them want to learn all things Japan, so I’ve seen lots of anthropologists, historians, sociologists, etc. who are non-Japanese teaching about Japan in English to those classes for foreigners.

   Same rules apply as in

   1. get pedigree Japan recognizes
   2. have Japanese language skills
   3. milk connections

   Your competition is Japanese people who speak English (or whose universities believe that they speak English), which means it will be difficult.

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   For teaching Japanese history to Japanese people at the university level, amplify the rules x100. You’ll need a PhD from Harvard, Oxford, or the Sorbonne and some famed discovery about Japanese history that they liked, giving you a niche of fame. Otherwise, why would they hire you ahead of 50 Japanese guys who all. have PhDs, speak Japanese natively, and have been adjuncting for a decade just to live?

8. A lot of good comments already, just adding my two cents.

   I teach social studies classes in English at a private high school. It’s a competitive position but I have a masters in the subject area. That education in addition to some teaching experience got my foot in the door. Working hard kept me at the school for almost six years now.

   I have also worked at a few universities and in my experience, you’ll need language fluency as well as something special to offer. I have an American friend who received their doctorate in Japanese history with a focus on super-specific developments in poetry during some time period. It’s the kind of thing a professor might write a book about and eight people in the entire world will ever read it and only three of them might understand it. This friend also spoke near-fluent Japanese and had previously taught in the U.S. and was published. In other words, they were a talented academic with the language ability to do their work in Japanese.

   I will say that I have recently been seeing more and more job advertisements for subject professors to teach in English. With the population shrinking (especially among people under the age of 25), universities are beefing up their international student populations and are offering more classes in English. That being said, almost all of these ads also require candidates to speak fluent Japanese, or at least enough to teach in the language. While there are plenty of PhDs who know Japanese history and can speak Japanese, how many of them can also speak fluent English? If you want to be competitive for these jobs, get your Japanese skills way up there and you might have a shot.